David Meaney Named Vice Provost for Research at Penn News / July 9, 2025 David Meaney has been named vice provost for research at the University of Pennsylvania, effective Aug. 1. He is senior associate dean for faculty development and strategic initiatives and the inaugural Solomon R. Pollack Professor of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The announcement was made by Provost John L.... Read More
Designing Cleaner, Greener Concrete that Absorbs Carbon Dioxide News / July 9, 2025 From the mud, straw, and gypsum mixtures of ancient Egypt’s monumental pyramids to the sophisticated underwater material employed by Roman engineers in iconic structures like the Pantheon, concrete has long symbolized civilization’s resilience and ingenuity. Yet today, concrete finds itself in a paradoxical bind: The very material that allowed societies... Read More
Misadventures in Montevideo News / July 8, 2025 GRIP: Entrepreneurship in Montevideo, Uruguay Of the many stories I carry from my years in Spanish classes, one that has stayed with me and has proven to be surprisingly relevant during my time in Montevideo, was told by my sixth grade Spanish teacher. She had been living abroad in Spain... Read More
Impact of Research News / June 30, 2025 Each day, in every school at Penn, researchers are making strides to cure diseases, improve lives, and better understand our world. With more than $1.45 billion in research awards during 2024, Penn is one of the nation’s top research universities—generating new knowledge and applying it to critical, real-world challenges. Dawn... Read More
Composto, Jordan-Sciutto Named Vice Provosts at Penn News / June 25, 2025 Two new vice provosts have been named at the University of Pennsylvania. Russell Composto will be the vice provost for undergraduate education and Kelly Jordan-Sciutto the vice provost for graduate education, both beginning July 1. These two new positions will assume many of the administrative and oversight roles of the deputy provost and... Read More
Exploring Juneteenth News / June 19, 2025 Sometimes called America’s second Independence Day, Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 and, this year, marks 160 years since the arrival of Union troops in Galveston, Texas, to announce that enslaved people were free. The day was first recognized as a national holiday in 2021 and is one of eight... Read More
What is an NPU? A Penn Expert Explains News / June 13, 2025 Increasingly, neural processing units (NPUs) are making their way into consumer electronics: laptops, high-end tablets, phones, and more. But what do they do, and why are they suddenly showing up? Answering this question is Benjamin C. Lee, a professor in the departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering and Computer and Information... Read More
Unlocking the Mechanics of Protein Misfolding News / June 3, 2025 Prions, mysterious shape-shifting proteins, can lead to brain disorders such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, “mad cow disease” in cattle, yet they can also play essential roles in yeast survival and long-term memory formation in mice. Given their wide-ranging and complicated effects, investigating their structure and... Read More
Delivering a One-Two Punch to Superbugs to Fight Infections News / May 28, 2025 Since the discovery of penicillin nearly a century ago, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a stealthy, pervasive enemy in the fight against bacterial infections. AMR claims an estimated 1.27 million lives a year and contributed to nearly five million deaths in 2019, placing drug-resistant bacterial infections ahead of HIV and... Read More
How Penn is Reimagining Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence News / May 20, 2025 In a sunlit conference room in Amy Gutmann Hall, a group of researchers convenes for a regular lunch meeting. Physicists converse with linguists, computer scientists collaborate with chemists, and psychologists speak to engineers. These postdoctoral researchers represent the University’s response to a shifting research landscape prompted by recent advances in... Read More
